The Vaccine Taskforce closed in autumn 2022. Its role in vaccine supply was merged into the UK Health Security Agency, and its work in bringing vaccine manufacture in-country transferred to the Office for Life Sciences.[4]
History
The body was set up in April 2020 by the Government's Chief Scientific Advisor, Sir Patrick Vallance.[5]
On 12 September, it came to light that Sir John Bell was a member of the body.[7]
On 14 October, the chair managed public expectation by stating that a vaccine for COVID-19 was expected to be no more efficacious than the flu vaccine, which immunises against the influenza virus with around 50 per cent success. Bingham added: "We shouldn't assume it's going to be better than a flu vaccine, because that's an equivalent – it's a mutating … respiratory virus that gets in through the nose and eyes and respiratory tract".[8]
Speaking to BBC Scotland's The Seven on 17 October, Bingham said that the government would have to arrive at an agreement with the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) as to how any COVID-19 vaccine should be distributed; the staff of care homes and the elderly are likely to be prioritised. She stated that initially there would be a limited supply any COVID-19 vaccine.[9]
On 18 October 2020, SAGE committee member, Sir Jeremy Farrar, commented on Sophy Ridge On Sunday that the Vaccine Taskforce "has done an absolutely extraordinary job" and the country is in an "extraordinarily strong position" with regard to the line-up of possible vaccines.[10]
On 14 June 2021, the microbiologist Sir Richard Sykes was appointed chair of the Vaccine Taskforce.[14]
As of June 2022[update], the director-general of the taskforce is Madelaine McTernan.[4]
Steering group
In June 2021, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy confirmed in response to a Freedom of Information Act request that the taskforce's formal steering group had been disbanded, with the taskforce now being managed by a senior leadership team of civil servants and experts, with Sir Richard Sykes as its external chair.[15]
Former membership
Until November 2020, the membership of the taskforce was unknown. A Freedom of Information Act request to obtain the membership was responded to with three pages of redacted names.[16] As of that month, the steering group was made up of:[17]
Representatives of other government departments and public sector organisations attended VTF Steering Group meetings as required
Developments
On 20 October 2020, the Financial Times reported that potential COVID-19 vaccines would be selected for testing by the taskforce towards the end of the first quarter of 2021, but this was dependent on the outcome of "characterisation studies".[18] The article also mentioned funding of £33.6 million being provided by government to accelerate the development of new COVID-19 vaccines by exposing human trial participants to the coronavirus in controlled conditions around 30 days after having received a shortlisted vaccine. The work of the taskforce was bolstered by a further tranche of £19.7 million in funding for clinical trial-related blood testing facilities at Public Health England, specifically at PHE Porton Down.[19]
On 22 October, Oxford Immunotec announced that the company had been chosen by the taskforce to be the unique supplier of T cell testing for SARS-Cov-2. The move was underscored with a £3 million investment, as the Business Secretary, Alok Sharma, emphasised the importance of T cell diagnostic capabilities in assessing the performance of candidate vaccines within COVID-19 vaccine trials.[20]
On 27 October 2020, an article by Bingham was published in The Lancet. It highlighted the taskforce's overall strategy of a diverse portfolio of vaccines, with an emphasis on those thought capable of achieving an immune response in the over-65s. From an initial pool of 240 potential vaccines, the taskforce selected six candidates which employ four varied methods: adenoviral vectors, mRNA, adjuvanted proteins, and whole inactivated viral vaccines. The article also revealed that Clive Dix was the taskforce's deputy chair.[21] It was reported the following day that Bingham had warned in the Lancet article that first-generation COVID-19 vaccines would probably not be perfect, and would only lessen symptoms rather than prevent infection and that they "might not work for everyone or for long".[22]
Related bodies
The Department of Health and Social Care set up an Antivirals Taskforce in April 2021, to identify and deploy post-infection antiviral medicines which could be taken by people at home.[23] By September 2022, the name of the body had changed to the COVID-19 Antivirals and Therapeutics Taskforce.[24]
^Vaccine Taskforce Aims(PDF) (Report). www.gov.uk. 6 April 2020. p. 1. Retrieved 6 October 2020. Currently there is work going on across government but it is not sufficiently coordinated. The taskforce will bring together government, industry, academics, funding agencies, regulators, logistics and finance to make rapid decisions to put the UK in a position to accelerate vaccine development and vaccinate the right proportion of the population as soon as possible after a vaccine is available.
^"Expert partnership to explore and establish Human Challenge studies of COVID-19 in the UK" (Press release). London. www.gov.uk. 20 October 2020. Retrieved 24 October 2020. Innovation Minister Lord Bethell said: "This investment into new facilities at PHE Porton Down will enable its dedicated and expert scientists to accelerate the pace and scale of specialised testing to support the critical work of the Vaccine Taskforce."
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